Development of online ultrasound instructional module and comparison to traditional teaching methods

Journal of Engineering Education, Jul 2002 by Nguyen, Jimmy, Paschal, Cynthia B

Time log data indicated that both groups spent statistically the same amount of time in class or using the device. This is not surprising, as in fact there might have been an effort on some level by students in the online group to allot the same amount of time online as they would have had to spend in class. In completing the homework, however, the traditional group spent about 70 minutes longer than the online group, a significant difference. Time savings for the online group could have come from the ability to find information more quickly, or from more rapid delivery of information via the use of figures.

Under the category of "other," the greatest amount of separation in time spent between the two groups is revealed. Though statistically the means are not found to be significantly different, this result was largely due to the high standard deviation in the data. The traditional group spent nearly two hours longer than the online group on average, and most students would probably agree that this represents a noticeably greater time commitment. There are three possible explanations for the difference.

Students in the traditional group were given a more useful form of information with which to work, while students in the online group were limited to reading the tutorial over and over again, which they spent less time doing.

Relative to their peers in the traditional group, students in the online group had an inaccurately optimistic self-assessment of their understanding of the material, and thus spent less time studying.

Students in the online group were able to learn the material more efficiently.

If either of the first two cases were true, then students in the online group would have scored significantly lower on the ultrasound exam. Since the average exam scores were statistically equal for both groups, the third explanation is logically the most correct, though there was undoubtedly some influence of the other two. The increase in learning efficiency is demonstrated by the decrease in amount of time required to learn the information when the tutorial is implemented in conjunction with the maintenance of exam and homework scores at the same level. Thus, our original goal of improving efficiency while not sacrificing level of understanding has indeed been met. Of course, there are deeper aspects to the process of learning and understanding that need to be examined. Among them are the ability to apply learned information to real world environments, retention of knowledge, and enjoyment of the learning experience.

V. CONCLUSION

The device used in this experiment was an effective initial attempt at bringing the online world to the classroom. Statistically, it has been shown that level of understanding was maintained while efficiency improved dramatically, suggesting enormous potential for the teaching method. Through these results and through feedback from the participating members of the study we have been given many blocks upon which to build in continuing to improve the device, and can expand the evaluation of its usage